The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
And sugar and spikes and neon nights
Walks in lights, in chains coughin' smoke-whoopin' hope
Cardinal sky rush by
Falls bark in dark, all back in dark
Lies steam stale shoes move broom in pale
Moon in a dime store sale
Sugar and spikes and everything nice and everything nice and crazy
That's what little worlds are made of, lady
I'm paid up in home in my new Friday's house
There's no H on my faucet, there's no bed for my mouse
My punch and grow mind is in diamond back time
Now it's king for a day with my lady look fine
Got my peakin' up hat and my caramel mask
Tremelo car, got my speidel wrist round my honey
Goin' to see the navy-blue Vicar
Paul, Peter and missus Wray flicker
Walks in lights, in chains coughin' smoke-whoopin' hope
Cardinal sky rush by
Falls bark in dark, all back in dark
Lies steam stale shoes move broom in pale
Moon in a dime store sale
Sugar and spikes and everything nice and everything nice and crazy
That's what little worlds are made of, lady
I'm paid up in home in my new Friday's house
There's no H on my faucet, there's no bed for my mouse
My punch and grow mind is in diamond back time
Now it's king for a day with my lady look fine
Got my peakin' up hat and my caramel mask
Tremelo car, got my speidel wrist round my honey
Goin' to see the navy-blue Vicar
Paul, Peter and missus Wray flicker
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Light Up The Sky
Van Halen
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Fast Car
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"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
It's about living in a big city. One day you're making hundreds of dollars (sugar), the next you're being robbed by some punks(spikes). It's about riding the big city life like a cowboy rides a bull.
Ttsabout: urban/cosmopolitan multiplicity, the joy therein, against the classical logic of either/or & for the postmodern logic of and/and/and/and.
Seen thru beefheart eyes, the city becomes and sprawling collage w/ neon lights stapled to faucets glued to smoke, the city becomes a ramshackle symphony where chevy's warble tremolo spiedel's(wristwatch) & whoopin' coughs punctuate a diamondback(snake)'s time signature. In this collage, bad mixes with good, sugar mixes with spike, and one can inhale the full variety of existence. If Beefheart is an absurdist/surealist, because he mixes and matches disparate images & sounds, guided by his subconscious dameon, well then, so does the city, powered by its libidinal economy.
Like an octopus, nothing escapes postcapitalist urbanity's tentacles: the moon is for sale in a dime store. Instead of church, vicars, peter, paul, matt, luke & john the people congregate in darkness at the cinema, where images are spliced onto images, & the flick that is playing seems to be king kong, starring "misses" fay wray (so the city is probably nyc).